Wednesday, June 04, 2008

A look back at the Clinton campaign (NYTimes)

According to reports by Adam Nagourney of the New York Times and Greg Sargent of Talking Points Memo, both of whom have proved generally reliable in such matters, Hillary Clinton will formally drop out of the Democratic nomination race on Friday and endorse Barack Obama. This looks like the explicit, definitive end of the road for Clinton's presidential campaign.

Post-mortems and retrospective analyses were already appearing weeks (even months) ago, and we can expect a further flood of them now. Meanwhile, for those who want to start by reminding themselves of the basic story, the New York Times has posed a video with A Look Back at the Clinton Campaign.

This is just a quick overview, which doesn't try to offer much in the way of depth or analytical penetration ... but, on the other hand, it hits a lot of the main points (though not all) without having too many conspicuous axes to grind. You can see it HERE.

--Jeff Weintraub

P.S. (6/5/2008): It turns out that the formal concession will happen Saturday, not Friday. Below is the announcement that Clinton e-mailed to her supporters. These are the key paragraphs:

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

--------------------Dear XXX,

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

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About Me

Jeff Weintraub is a social & political theorist, political sociologist, and democratic socialist who has been teaching most recently at the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and the New School for Social Research.. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University in 2015-2016 and is currently a Research Associate at the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College.
(Also an Affiliated Professor with the University of Haifa in Israel & an opponent of academic blacklists.)